Personal Narrative

I was born in America, but when I'm in Serbia, I hardly feel American. My parents were born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. My mom loves telling me her story of how she came here, and now I want to share it. My parents went to college in Serbia, but my dad wanted to go to post doctoral studies here. So the two (who were engaged) moved to America. They got student Visa's to come here for school and for my mom to be a house mother. It was hard to get a visa at the time but since my father was accepted in the school it was easier for him and my mother. My mother said they couldn't carry much and they both had only one suitcase. Most people now, carry 2 or 3 for themselves. Just imagine all your possession's, everything you have to start a new life and house...all lie in one suitcase.


They didn't have much to begin with. In fact at first they lived in a crappy neighbor hood, but as soon as my dad got better jobs, we started moving up. Fortunate enough for them, they wont a green card in the lottery, so it let them work and live a normal life style in America. My mom would tell me how there were many hard times in Serbia. The government was unstable with riots breaking loose, it was no place to raise a family.That's one reason i believe in immigration, we let people have a better life for themselves and their family. Even if they do come here and their life isn't perfect, think of how much worse it could have been in a corrupt country.


At first,my parents moved everywhere, exploring America. In fact my three siblings and I were born in South bend, Indiana.We lived in Chicago for awhile and then ended up here, in New Jersey. Which i still have no idea why someone would pick to raise there children in Jersey, but that's beyond me. I loved how, no matter where we went, we still kept our culture with us. The one main thing in our culture(like many other cultures) is food. My mom would cook us many traditional Serbian dishes like stuffed peppers and grape leaves. I also love how my mom would not let her language die. She insisted me knew how to speak Serbian and taught us both English and Serbian as a adolescent.



Another neat thing my parents kept that was in our culture is the orthodox Christmas(Jan 7th). We celebrate all holidays on our orthodox days, not on regular ones. Many people who come here just go along with what society does and forget about what they did. I believe that culture is a very good and important thing in my life but also having American culture is important. My parents didn't come here and expect people to learn Serbian to understand them, they came here and learned the language and culture of America.


I just thought it was really interesting how my parents made their life here. They came here with nothing but a suitcase, but look at what they have now. A nice ranch, in a good neighborhood, with very good schooling. As children, we pretty much get what we want. My parents must be living their version of the American Dream. Everyone in America is originally an immigrant, it would be hypocritical to say that we don't want any immigrants in our nation. Many great immigrants have helped our society and saved lives. If given people opportunities they can make great things for themselves, their families, and society.

Persuasive Essay

Who are immigrants? Technically speaking every ones forefathers were immigrants. America is a founded land and its people are the ones who love it"America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants"(free essay pro- immigration). English in itself is a Germanic language. Ethnic background should not matter, saying everyone in America has a German,Chinese, or different ancestor is a safe assumption. This is what makes our American culture so special, it brings different cultures and customs into America.

One problem in today's society is people view all immigrants as labor workers. To assume that would not be cunning. One person most people have heard of,Albert Einstein was an immigrant from Germany, yet he was the "greatest physicist of the twentieth century"(Famous American immigrants).Another name that you might have heard of is Joseph Pulitzer, he immigrated from Hungary and became one of the most famous writers in American history leaving us with Pulitzer prizes. You can see here that many true Americans were actually immigrants from other countries.

"It has been said that "immigration is a threat to our economy"(Free Argumentative Essay).People tend to believe that immigrants "threaten" American life by causing unemployment. As valid as this may seem, it's completely false.Many people confuse illegal immigrants with legal immigrants. Immigrants open up new jobs in our society and enhance daily life. They bring new skills and Technical knowledge to our country. Some Immigrants tend to take jobs that even the unemployed would not want to do. I believe we should keep our open door policy and allow foreigners to pursue their American Dream.

"By haveing a variety of cultures helps people understand and learn from each other. Taking immigration away would hurt this country more then economically,"(Free Argumentative Essay). If you take away immigration your taking away what makes America, America. Your taking away diverse customs and culture. In an attempt to close the open door policy you'll be taking away the American dream from many immigrants. I know that if immigration wasn't here, i wouldn't be here either, and neither would my parents. Nearly half the jobs and cultures, if not more wouldn't be here if immigration was taken away.

"If we are to continue to excel as a nation, the traditionalists who fear an encroachment of foreign-born Americans must learn to accept that we achieved our greatest as a result of being a "nation of immigrants."(Free Essay Pro-Immigration). Hence we should keep the open door policy. Many people have lost sight of the positive effects of immigration. Immigration helps open more business's and make people more open minded. Immigrations widens our variety of customs, religion, and culture. In my opinion bringing new foods,traditions,skills, and technical knowledge to the United States is never a negative thing. Everyone in America is somehow an immigrant whether it was the last generation or centuries ago. Lets keep the variety going on...







WORK CITED

"Famous American Immigrants."Immigration Update. Web. 07 Jan 2010.
http://immigrationupdate.wordpress.com/famous-american-immigrants/.

"Free Argumentative Essay- Immigrants and Immigration :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays."Free Essays, Term Papers, Research Paper, and Book Report. Web. 07 Jan 2010
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=15306

"Free Essay Pro-immigration Essay." ECheat- Free essays, free term papers, custom essays. Web. 07 Jan 2010. http://echeat.com/essay.php?t=26866

Picture Prompt

Yeah, That's me all the way on the left screaming. God i look weird in this picture,thinking back to that day; it was crazy. Lets start from the beginning. It all started when i was kid. In Mexico we didn't have much and my parents wanted to move to America, the land of dreams( they used to call it). Yes, that's also me, wrapped in that flag. My dad bought it for me, saying that America was our new homeland. The land of opportunities. He said as soon as we had enough money. We would go to America. I, of course, was very excited. I danced around with the flag saying "America, America! Mi nuevos casa;la tierra de los suenos"(america, America! My new home, Land of the dreams)



My dad was excited but also worried. How would we get there, what would people think of us? I knew we'd fit right in. A couple months later my dad said we could legally get into America and make that our new home. I knew I'd miss all my friends but i didn't realise how different America would be then Mexico. As soon as we walked out of the airplane i said "Oh, Dios mio...no en mexico ya."(Oh my god...we're not in Mexico anymore) My dad said to me, "nina no tengas miedo, te va a encantar".(Don't worry little girl, you'll love it here) Let me tell you, my father was right. I had nothing to worry about, i loved America. I loved the diverse culture and all the different people i met.



America was my homeland. I Pretty much grew up here. Don't get me wrong, I still kept my Spanish culture, but I learned English too. I mixed my culture. We ate Spanish foods some nights and of course i was bilingual. Some nights I'd make Italian dishes that my friends had showed me. Here, me and my family were living the American dream. My dad had opened a small Spanish restaurant and hired many new people. I met them all, they became like our second family. It was so different here, in Mexico it was generally all Spanish people, here, everything was mixed. At the restaurant, the people dad hired, were Spanish, Chinese, German, all different cultures, and I loved it.



Everything was great until one day, we got stopped on the street by the police. My mother and I were just going to get groceries, I didn't understand what was going on. My mother said,"Callar!"(be quiet) They took me and my mother to the police station and questioned us on how we had gotten here(in America). When my mother answered the airplane, he harassed her and said we were lying. He said, "your obviously confused Miss, you're an illegal immigrant. You hopped the fence and went over our border, who helped you?". I didn't understand my dad had the papers, we did nothing wrong. My mom said she knew what was going on, he thought, just because we were Mexican, we were illegal.



Even at the young age I was, I new what kind of discrimination that was. I was offended and upset. So me and my mother got a group of people and formed a riot against the police. They couldn't treat us this way. That's where the image of me and my mother with the sign comes in. We ended up making a difference. The police got in trouble for harassment. They couldn't just take us into custody for assuming we were illegal. They couldn't judge us on our looks, and i guess that's the moral to my story; don't judge a book by its cover.